Joshua breaks silence over sparring KO rumour before Andy Ruiz Jr defeat

Anthony Joshua insists he did not suffer a KO in sparring before his shock defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr., reports metro.co.uk.

The 29-year-old’s preparations were called into question following his loss to Ruiz at Madison Square Garden on June 1.

One rumour which surfaced after Joshua’s defeat claimed that he had suffered a knockdown in a sparring session with American heavyweight Joey Dawejko. But when asked directly about the rumour, Joshua was adamant that it is untrue.

‘Definitely not,’ Joshua said on AJ: The Untold Truth.

“I feel like people are more interested in their five minutes of fame. Even in sparring, everyone wants to be famous, rather than a good fighter.

“Silly stories about knocking me down and all that stuff.

“You can’t even enjoy your training and work on things without someone trying to make up false allegations, and trying to get five minutes of fame.

“You bring someone into your training camp to do them a favour, you’re paying them, nothing like [the knockdown rumour] in that nature has happened, you beat them up in every round, then they go and do an interview.

“It just happens all the time in boxing, there is just a lot of envy, and there’s no realness, and that’s why it doesn’t really sit well with me boxing sometimes, where I just lose that passion for it.’

Joshua also laughed off a question about whether he suffered a panic attack on the night of the fight.

“What is a panic attack?’ he replied. ‘No, no [laughs].”